Seeing the Stars
by LG14
Summary: HTTYD and Brave Mash up. Takes place after HTTYD 2. Sequel to Seeing the Sun. Hiccup and Merida are in their early forties. They have been married for over five years, life on Berk is great and their young family flourishes. There is just one problem, the dragons are disappearing. Rated M for language and fluffy smut in later chapters. ON HOLD.
1. Prologue

Hiccup:

There were dragons when I was a boy. There were great, grim, sky dragons that nested on the cliff tops like gigantic scary birds. Little, green, scuttley dragons that hunted down the mice and rats in well-organized packs. Preposterously huge Sea Dragons that were twenty times as big as the Big Blue Whale and who killed for the fun of it. Dragons black as the night that were the unholy offspring of lightning and death itself, colourful dragons that chucked quills at their attackers. I saw them all and more. I trained them and lived with them, but now, now, they are disappearing from Midgard and no one knows where they go. They go where no one goes. It breaks my heart to think of a world without them. The world is filling with darkness as they blink out of existence one by one like stars behind cloud.

I am Hiccup Chief of Berk, husband of Merida, father of Moire and Kol, I am forty-two years old and I am lucky enough to still call a dragon my best friend. I am sitting on the top of Raven Point looking out over my island in the gathering twilight. As far as I am concerned Berk is the best place on Midgard, the place where my family live and thrive, the place where there are still dragons roaming the skies. It wasn't always so, up until a few years ago the island felt unbearably confining then Merida filled my life with light. She is my home, my sun, and my life. I still burn for her the way I did when we met five years ago. Without her the disappearance of dragons would be insufferable, she makes the situation tolerable.

Each day I visit nesting sites with Fishlegs, every few months that go by another nest will disappear. We never see them leave and we struggle to track the way they go as much of their habitat is near the ocean. There appears to be no antecedent for their leaving, nothing that us humans can identify at least. There is no evidence of them being attacked or taken by dragon hunters, it's like they simply cease to exist. The dragons we use to get to the nesting sites don't appear to be affected by the others leaving, they don't exhibit an urge to depart Berk. The Hooligans and I am at a loss. The High Council and I meet regularly to discuss the issue but no answer has yet to be found.

Merida:

I have been living on Berk for five years now. I am a wife and a mother, a tracker and hunter. I am useful and have more friends than I ever expected to have in me life. Life on Berk is everything I expected it to be and more, the Hooligan's are welcoming and I feel more at home here than I ever did in DunBroch. Hiccup and I grow closer each day and our little family flourishes. Our daughter Moire is like her father; thoughtful, quiet and considerate, with me blue eyes and her dad's auburn hair, though curly like mine. Her younger brother Kol is more like me and the triplets – adventurous, mischievous and outgoing. He has wild red curls and green eyes. They are both skinny like their dad. The sunshine of our life is marred by one thing, the slow disappearance of the dragons.

It is devastating Hiccup, I can see it in his eyes. He is gone long hours, sometimes days with Toothless trying to find out where these precious beasts are going, each time he returns defeated and it is breaking him. I try to be strong, because I am good at it, but it is hard to see the one you love heart breaking a tiny bit each time a nest is empty. One day the Night Fury's will go and that will be a hard blow to heal. I do not know what will become of us without the dragons our way of life is intrinsically linked to them.

Still life here on Berk goes on and there is always something to celebrate. Today the Hooligan women and I will go to the Hot Spring Caves to begin the rights of washing away a women's maidenhood, there will be a wedding in the next few days. Me brother King Hamish and his wife Aine are here to witness the wedding, they have brought me nieces, four of them, two sets of twins (Ailsa, Maili, Runa and Saga) to see their cousins. It is good to see me family, without the dragons it would be nearly impossible to meet with them so regularly. It is one of the things that worries me should the dragons become extinct, I would lose contact with me Clan.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter One:

Merida:

Astrid and I make our way to the Hot Spring Caves we fly past Raven point down through the forest. Me relationship with OIdheche has grown over the years, the bond between rider and dragon really is symbiotic, we move as one though the air. There is nothing else like it, not even riding a horse. It's totally freeing. I look across to Astrid and Stormfly, focusing on their extra passenger, Ruffnut. Ruffnut came with us a she couldn't come on her dragon, Barf and Belch as they need two riders. We swoop down to land in the small clearing, me hair streaming behind me.

"Looks like the rest of the women are here." Comments Astrid as she dismounts, looking around at the other dragons present, Ruff snorts with derision. If she could get away with not coming she would have, however, it's her wedding and Viking tradition states she needs to be clean and prepared for marriage.

Astrid and I all but drag her into the caves as she whines in protest.

"Do yeh want to get to the good bit or not?" I complain as I link arms with her. "There's no shagging until yeh wed." I grin, though she can't see that in the growing gloom.

"Like that stopped you and Hiccup!" She retorts "The whole village knew you guys were fucking and they turned a blind eye"

I can feel my cheeks flush in the darkness of the cave's entrance.

"That's only because I was Queen, they couldn't tell me what to do."

"Plus, Merida and Hiccup had opportunity, you haven't as you guys haven't ever seen each other without a crowd around you." I can here Astrid smiling and the clink of her armoured skirt. "Besides, Ruff, I'm sure you've had the opportunity to have any man you want... You have a massive amount of reputation."

"I'm fussy, I haven't found anyone but him I want to actually bang and that also wants to get to it with me." She moans.

"Are you telling me that you're a virgin, Ruff?" I ask gruffly, stopping before the cave widens out into the springs.

"Uh, suppose. It's not like I haven't gotten up to stuff before, it's just I never wanted to risk getting pregnant, you know? Could you imagine how obnoxious Tuff would be if I had? Urgh!" She elaborates, I can feel her gesticulating into the darkness. Astrid and I pull her into the torch lit cavern. The light illuminates the giant space bouncing off the steaming water, the cavern appears to be shimmering in golden light. The gathered women cheer and special mead is passed around as we chat and undress ready to get into the water.

All the women are bare as the slip into the warm pools, I find it hard not to compare me wobbly motherly belly to that of Ruffnut's flat one. I wonder if Hiccup misses the way I used to look. We begin to sing bawdy songs of lust and sex. I am reminded of my own cleansing here nearly six years ago, the songs are enough to make even the most outrageous of old wives' blush. Ceremonious oils, soaps and perfumes are passed round as Ruffnut's hair and skin are scrubbed, brushed and tended to. The women laugh, and pass scandalous gossip around and trade rude secrets about their husbands, female couples also dish about their partners much to the glee of those present.

The whole thing is rowdy and fun. Talk turns to Ruff's intended. The women of the tribe cluck and coo over Lord MacIntosh's toned form and blue tattoos, I have made sure that his reputation has made it to Berk on Ruff's behalf. However, it was only the truth and nothing more as his head is big enough without me elaborating his escapades for him. The women talk of his exploits, his leading an army of men and his way with women. They wonder why he hasn't married before, I smirk, they obviously haven't met him. It is then I notice that Aine is there having arrived with Ingrid, she is lovely; slender with long dark curls like her brother, her arms and back covered with the beautiful blue Celtic scroll work favoured by the MacIntosh Clan. Hamish is likewise tattooed since he married her six years past. The Hooligan's look at her with interest and talk to her about the meaning of the blue marks on her skin. Tattooing is virtually none existent here on Berk unless you count Eret. However, he descends from a place far north from here originally, Astrid says he had them before he knew her. A rite of passage to manhood from his tribe apparently.

Astrid elbows me, her traditional greeting for those she loves. I smile at her breaking out of me reverie. "You were away with the Valkyries" She chuckles.

"I was admiring Aine's tattoos..." I say by way of explanation, Astrid produces a wide toothed comb and scented oils for my hair. I smile and duck under the water to soak me curls. Astrid begins the huge task trying to tame me hair, once she's done I reciprocate, we chat about the fact that this is Nanna's first time being included as one of the village women. Nanna looks the spit of Astrid but tall like Eret and black hair. She is gossiping to girls her own age, at her next birthday she will need to go out into the wild and bond with a dragon.

"What if there are no dragon's for Moire and Kol to bond with when they turn fifteen?" I whisper as I look at Nanna and her friends, voicing an as yet unspoken fear. Astrid places a comforting hand on me shoulder.

"We will try everything to prevent that before it's a possibility." She smiles sadly.

"What if it's too little too late?" I realise tears threaten to fall. We hug.

"We can only try our best." Astrid says as she pulls away. "Here drink that, it'll take the edge off." She hands we some of the mead. The cleansing is coming to an end. Ruffnut has now officially left her maidenhood in the water and is a woman. The women dry off, dress, and begin to leave the cavern. Nanna is leaving with her already bonded friends, Aine leaves with Ingrid.

Astrid and I find Ryffnut still trying to get out of the warm waters, she is quite pissed, having over indulged in the strong mead. I snort a laugh and point at Ruffnut helpless to assist her out. Astrid is likewise incapacitated as she watches Ruff flop about. Once we have got over ourselves we drag the drunken naked woman out of the water and help her to get dressed and head outside. The flight to the Hooligan Village doesn't take long. We see Ruffnut to the house she shares with Tuffnut and see her to bed.

I go wish Astrid and good night as walk our separate was home. I am thankful it's not raining, though it is bitter cold, so I am thankful for me bear skin cloak. I hurry inside to find Hiccup waiting up for me.

Hiccup:

I have put Moire and Kol to bed with tales of Merida's bravery. I come downstairs and continue to sketch the drawings in a book I am illustrating for Kols birthday in a few months' time. Merida will be late due to Ruff's ritual cleansing. I set water to boil for some camomile tea. I find these evening rituals grounding, it helps me to shake off the anxieties of my day as chief.

I am sketching when Merida comes home later, my thoughts have moved from Kols story to the day Merida walked through the clearing to me at our wedding. She looked ethereal being led to me by the Will O the Wisps. I draw Merida's smile as she reaches out for my hand. I look up and am greeted with that same smile. She joins me on our sunken bench near the fire, her arm wrapped around my shoulder as her head leans against me. She smells of perfume and oils from the cleansing. I kiss the top of her head. The vibrant red is streaked with silver, she is still as stunning as ever. I feel lucky every day that I chose to go to DunBroch instead of asking Astrid to go.

"Good evening, Love?" I ask as wrap my arms around her waist. We gaze into the fire. "Tea?"

"Please." She smiles up at me. Merida is still awful around the house, she attempts to try and make tea but it tastes like stagnant harbour water. I don't know how she manages it. I know Eret has had to cook at home in order not to starve as Astrid is equally as terrible at cooking. I chuckle to myself as I pour Merida a beaker of camomile. She gives me the side eye knowing what is going through my head.

We drink our tea and Merida tells me about the scandals and drama the women have been gossiping about at the caves. It will be the men's turn tomorrow night, only this time it will be filled with boasting and bluster. I hate going to it and will leave late as the groom will be the centre of attention not me during the cleansing.

"So, are yeh looking forward to spending the night with MacIntosh tomorrow?" She asks giving me a mischievous grin. She knows that MacIntosh is exactly the sort of person that rubs me up the wrong way, like Snotlout does her and Astrid. I sigh and rub my face. "It's a good thing I'm nae going or I'd have to bring him down a peg or two when the bosting starts." She laughs with a snort. I can see it now. It makes me chuckle, she always makes things seem sunnier with her here. "Gobshite" She adds for good measure. I laugh as I stand and stretch.

"I'm going to bed, you coming, Mer?" I offer her a hand and look down at her. She smiles and takes it as I help her up.

"Sure, Hic." We step out of the sunken seated area and climb the stairs to the little landing turning left at the top of the stairs to our room.

-o0o-

The men's cleansing ritual is in full swing by the time Toothless and I set down in the clearing by the caves. I can hear the bravado from here. I sigh, Toothless' tail catches my back, it seems like he is giving me a show of solidarity, I walk into the gloom. The drinking games have already begun and Lord MacIntosh is in the middle of a particularly elaborate tail. He is swinging his tattooed arms around mimicking holding a sword. The men around him laughing a guffawing. I strip off and slip into the water to join Fishlegs and Thundergut, who are on the side lines watching with smirks etched on their faces.

"Thor, that guy's an ass." Comments Thundergut

"I have no idea what Ruff sees in him" Sniggers Fishlegs

"Maybe he's astounding in bed, eh?" Says Gobber joining the conversation.

"Well, he's easy on the eye." I say. The three men look at me with faint looks of shock.

"I agree with Hiccup." Says Eret wading over. "That's his problem, he knows he's good looking and that's made him a twat." Eret carries a pitcher and four beakers. He gives us each a cup and pours us mead.

The raucous behaviour continues. As some of the men battle to have more status than others, they begin to wrestle one another and fling each other about the springs.

"Fookin' hell that blokes a complete wallaper!" States the heavily tattooed Hamish as he comes over to greet me by clapping me on my shoulder. The big man nearly makes my knee give way, I stumble as I can't catch myself on my other non-existent foot. Eret rights me without a second thought. "I cannae believe that he actually found someone willing to marry him."

"Maybe he's different in private." I shrug as MacIntosh and Tuffnut begin to wrestle one another.

"Let's hope so." Says Fishlegs with a smile his arm slung around Thundergut's shoulder watching the scene unfolds. After another few drinks, we make a move and leave the pools. I am glad to be away from the noise and bluster of the others. They will worse for wear tomorrow. Gobber looks at the four of us.

"Maybe he's hung like a rat and feels the need to make up for it by being a complete wanker?" He says. The rest of us nod along, contemplating this.

"Poor Ruff..." Pouts Eret. The rest of us laugh aloud.


End file.
